My First Colorado 10-Miler: Mesa Cortina Trail
Ok- so it wasn’t quite 10 miles, but 9.34 miles is close enough! This trail is located in the Wildernest area of Silverthorne and goes to the South Willow Creek Falls. This was my first trip to Colorado, and thus my first hike there! This trail took up a solid chunk of the day, we spent just under 5 hours out/back, and 3 hours 50 minutes were spent hiking.
The trail starts in Wildernest and starts in an open field but turns into an aspen forest. There were a handful of trees that had fallen over and were obstructing the trail, but nothing you couldn’t make your way around if you have good mobility. For those who cannot duck under a log or take a big step up to go over a log, this trail would have ended prematurely. There was some snow further up on the trail, and unfortunately a bit of post-holing was involved. But, it didn’t slow us down too much and we took a cat nap once we got to the falls :) Lastly, the incline of this trail was also super manageable, which was quite different from what I am used to hiking out East in the White Mountains!
